HARDWOOD RECORD 



33 



The report of Janies Buckley, treasurer, 

 was brief and showed that receipts for the 

 year had been $495.03, which with disburse- 

 ments of $27.60 left a balance on hand of 

 $467.43. 



The president then appointed a commit- 

 tee to pass upon oiBcers' reports, which 

 committee after adjournment recommended 

 their adoption and the adoption of the recom- 

 mendations contained in them. 



Eeports of Standing Conunittees 

 The next general business was the reports 

 of the standing committees. John M. 

 Pritchard of Memphis, Tenn., chairman of the 

 Inspection Committee, stated that his com- 

 mittee had no written report to submit, but 

 in behalf of the body he represented he ex- 

 pressel its concurrence in the suggestions 

 made in the addresses of the president and 

 secretary along the lines of universal inspec- 

 tion. Mr. Pritchard stated that it was gen- 

 erally conceded to be in accordance with the 

 best interest of the lumber business that one 

 set of rules instead of several should prevail, 

 and that it was a live topic before the lumber- 

 men at the present time. 



The next report was that of the Legislative 

 and Transportation Committee, W. A. Guthrie 

 of Indianapolis, chairman. Mr. Guthrie said: 



Your committee really has nothing: to report, 

 because there was nothing to do during the last 

 year. I might say. howevei". that the president 

 and secretary asked me to represent the associa- 

 tion at Chicago, about the middle of last May, 

 at the jobbers' and manufacturers' meeting, for 

 the purpose of taking action with reference to 

 the rate about to be put into effect by the rail- 

 roads. There were about 400 in the meeting 

 and a very enthusiastic gathering was had. 

 Resolutions were passed at that time and pre- 

 sented to the Interstate Commerce Commission. 

 Recently I understand that the hardwood lum- 

 bermen's attorneys have been before the com- 

 mission. I have not as yet seen any decision 

 and I do not think that it has been handed 

 down. 



The railroad companies show by their own fig- 

 ures that they have made immense profits in the 

 last few years. There seems to be no scientific 

 basis at the present time for fixing the rates. 

 and the Interstate Commerce Commision reports 

 that the jobbers generally have been trying to 

 devise some basis, so that it may be ascertained 

 as to what rates are just and proper, 



Sam Burkholder, chairman of the Coihmit- 

 tee on Forestry, stated that his report was 

 still in the hands of the printers, and that 

 copies would be mailed to any member desir- 

 ing them by leaving their names with the 

 secretary. 



The following resolution was recommended 

 by J. V. Stimson, chairman of the Committee 

 on Eesolutions: 



Whereas. An all wise Providence has called 

 from this life the wife of Lucius E. Fuller, al- 

 ways a friend of this association and its mem- 

 bers ; and 



Whereas, This association by personal ac- 

 quaintance knows the high character of Mr. 

 I'uUer and has heard of the lovable nature of 

 his departed helpmate : therefore, be it 



Resolved, That this association extend to- Mr. 

 Fuller our deepest sympathy and direct him to 

 the only consideration we have at such a time. 

 And that the secretary be directed to furnish 

 a copy of this resolution to the trade papers. 

 •T. V. Stimson, 



BCRTON F. SWAIX, 



.TOHX M. Pritchakd. 



Mr. Stimson offered a further resolution to 

 the effect that members delinquent in dues 

 be dropped from the roster of the association. 

 Both the resolutions were unanimously car- 

 ried. 



The Chair then appointed a Nominating 

 Committee to present nominations for the 



various offices for the coming year. The com- 

 mittee was composed of John Pritchard, .T. V. 

 Stimson and George Palmer. 



President Swain called upon John il. 

 Woods of Massachusetts, public worker and 

 lumberman, to address the meeting. He spoke 

 in part as follows: 



Address by John M. Woods 



I assure you that this is entirely unexpected, 

 and I want to say in the first place that I appre- 

 ciate most highly the honor of having been 

 elected an honorary member of the association. 

 It is a long look back to the time that I entered 

 this great city, thirty-seven years ago. As I 

 look around over this meeting *I miss "the grasp 

 of a vanished hand and I long for a voice that 

 is stilled." I refer, gentlemen, to Henry Maley, 

 He and I were about the last survivors of the 

 "old guard" of long ago, of the lumbermen of 

 this city, and in thinking over what has hap- 

 pened since that time, and of how the timber of 

 Indiana is getting scarcer and the trees are 

 growing smaller, and the percentage of good 

 lumber growing less and less each year, I just 

 thought that there had been no deterioration in 

 the character of the lumbermen of Indiana. The 

 great, strong men of that day have practicall.v 

 all passed away. A new generation has come 

 upon the stage, with the same lofty ideals, the 

 same high ambitions, and they do business in 

 the old-fashioned honorable kind of way. I have 

 a very soft spot in my heart for Indiana, because 

 I came here in 18G8 as a young man. a stranger, 

 and the lumbermen took me in in the broadest 

 sense. I found friends and made friends, and 

 I am pleased to say that I have kept them from 

 that day to this. 



An evolution has been going on all over the 

 country and years ago I was accused in one of 

 the large conventions of siding with the men 

 that made the lumber. I was, perhaps, the 

 onl.v man in New England that understood the 

 conditions ; that they were different from what 

 they were years ago : that the grades had to 

 be changed to meet those new conditions that 

 had arisen, and that it was only fair to the 

 lumbermen of Indiana and of the West and 

 the great Southwest that we should realize 

 that new conditions had come about ; that no 

 longer wore the 30 to 60-ineh logs to be had 

 almost anywhere, and in any quantity, and that 

 we could not expect the kind of timber that we 

 used to buy. "That day is past and is gone, 

 never to return. 



I was interested in talking to some gentle- 

 men here in the hotel, members of your legis- 

 lature, and I thought what a duty we owe and 

 how wide our influence mlErht be if it was 

 united to bring about legislation. As business 

 men we are too apt to forget that we are among 

 the heavy taxpayers of the country and that 

 we ought to have a voice and a say as to who 

 shall make the laws and who shall spend the 

 money that we pay in taxes. Last November I 

 cast my fifty-first vote, and from the first I 

 said that as long as I paid taxes I was going 

 to have something to say about who spent 

 the money I paid, and as long as I lived under 

 the law I would have something to say about 

 who should make the laws. I do not set myself 

 up as an example for other men, but I have felt 

 it my duty to give some of my time to the 

 public service. I did my best for three years. 

 in helping to save this nation. I served three 

 years in the legislature of Massachusetts, and 

 two years as mayor of my own city, and I did 

 it for the sole purpose of setting an example 

 to other men who had all they coiild attend to, 

 to give some time to public service ; and out of 

 this, perhaps, has come a little good. 



What Massachusetts Is Doing 



We introduced a bill in the Massachusetts 

 legislature, which became a law, establishing 

 the olHce of state forester, and to get the matter 

 down to a scientific basis. I live in a country 

 where you might say the forests were exhausted 

 two hundred years ago ; and still there is some 

 timber left. Last year we cut in Massachusetts 

 oOO.OOO.OOO feet of box boards. And that is 

 about all there is left. We have demonstrated 

 that reforestation will pay and the state of 

 Massachusetts has entered upon a new era in the 

 matter of forestry. We have in Massachusetts 

 over 300.000 acres of land that is valueless 

 for taxation, and we have set about to see it 

 that can not be made valuable and to be one 

 of the best assets of the commonwealth. We 

 have demonstrated that it can be. In the first 

 place, we set aside 900 acres of that land 

 and took the convicts out of some of our cor- 

 rectional institutions and put them to work 

 on it. to clear it up. We have demonstrated by 

 experiments that it will pay five per cent com- 

 pound interest. Our soil is adapted to white 

 pine, and while it will take time, we expect to 

 achieve the same results that Germany has 

 reached. Twenty years ago I went over there 

 and visited the head foresters of Germany and 

 France, to find out how they managed their 

 forests. Their forests over there have paid 

 four and nine-tenths per cent compound interest. 

 Their forests were exhausted hundreds of years 



ago. Now, we have got to come down to the 

 same thuig here. It is going to take too long 

 a time and is too big a thing for private indl^ 

 viduals to undertake. The states have got to 

 take this thing in hand. We use an immense 

 amount of wood and wo have got to get it 

 somewhere. My idea and the idea of the com- 

 monwealth is that the forests were an inherit- 

 ance, not to destroy, but to perpetuate and to be 

 handled in such a manner that those who come 

 after us can continue in the lumber business. 



Compliments op the Press 



The press has done a wonderful work in for- 

 warding this movement, and so also have such 

 men as Colonel Roosevelt. Last week Colonel 

 Roosevelt delivered an address before the lum- 

 bermen's association and the Massachusetts 

 .State Forestry Association on this question and 

 It IS very interesting. People who have lands 

 and who desire to do so make gifts of it to the 

 state, and it is set out in trees with the proviso 

 that in a certain number of years the former 

 owner can have that land back by paying the 

 cost and the interest, it he wants "it. 



So we have begun on a systematic method of 

 forestry which I am just as certain as can be 

 IS going to be a success and will produce re- 

 sults, and be of tremendous benefit to the com- 

 monwealth. 



Now we can, if we will, have a great influ- 

 ence. I want the man who represents me in 

 Congress, or in the legislature of Massachusetts 

 to know my ideas on this subject, so that this 

 generation will build for the next. 



Now. Mr. President and gentlemen. I did not 

 come here prepared to say a word, but I want 

 to extend to every one of you my heartfelt 

 thanks for the kind invitation to come and be 

 with you, and as long as I live and you invite 

 me. I am going to try and be with you at your 

 annual conventions. 



President Thomas of Wabash College ad- 

 dressed the association along the lines of work 

 done by the Indiana Forestry Association. 



He presented a statistical paper on Utiliza- 

 tion and Forest Waste, in which he pointed 

 out eleven ways by which lumbermen can 

 give practical aid to the interest of con- 

 servation, as follows: 



1 — By introducing better machinery and 

 methods for decreasing mill waste. 



2 — By specializing in cutting and marketing 

 the different kinds of timber. 



3 — By construction of mill waste utilization 

 plants in convenient centers to take care of mill 

 waste for certain territories. 



4 — By looking to the utilization of slashings 

 in the woods instead of allowing them to decay 

 and waste. 



5 — By protection and encouragement of the 

 second growth timber. 



6 — By a reasonable limitation on the size of 

 trees cut in accordance with a sensible plan of 

 yield. 



T — By reproducing the mill force to a point 

 that will be sufficient to keep pace with the saw- 

 yer, at the same time allowing him to study 

 carefully each log. 



S — By considering the possibility of extending 

 operations and securing low price lands in the 

 vicinity of mills and inaugurating a system of 

 planting and cultivation. 



9 — By giving attention to brush piling and 

 burning at the proper time. 



10— By advancing the value of products to 

 embrace the increased cost of growing timber. 



11 — By taking a personal interest in legisla- 

 tive matter having to do with taxation, lire, 

 state reserves, forestal education, etc. 



Professor Thomas' remarks were full of 

 accurately compiled statistics tending to 

 prove this point. 



Vice-President Fairbanks then talked on 

 conservation in its broadest sense. His ad- 

 dress showed him to be a man of broad ideala 

 and appealed to the listeners not only from 

 a sentimental point of view but as a prac- 

 tical proposition. He made his appeal in the 

 interests of the generations to come rather 

 than of the generation now in control. His 

 remarks were closely followed and enthusias- 

 tically applauded. 



Following the addresses of these notables, 

 J, V. Stimson proposed a resolution thank- 

 ing ex-Vice-President Fairbanks, Professor 

 Thomas and John.M. Woods for their able 

 and interesting addresses. The resolution was 

 adopted unanimously. 



